This invention relates to a wrap-around garment in the form of a vest which may be easily and rapidly donned and effectively secured to the body of the wearer to provide safe and secure protection for new-born babies during hasty and forced evacuation from a nursery in hospitals and comparable institutions in the event of fire or other emergencies.
Very little attention seems to have been paid to this important problem although safe and rapid removal of the new-born from institutions of the type in question should be a matter of prime importance to administrators and all personnel concerned with infant care. Nurseries are frequently located on an upper floor of such buildings and this presents additional problems in establishing effective procedures for orderly evacuation to be followed if and when such occasions arise.
While every precaution is taken in hospitals and the like to prevent accidents, such as fire, such events do happen and it is essential that personnel not only be trained to cope with such problems but that they be provided with simple and effective means to insure that the new-born be evacuated with a minimum of discomfort to a place of safety.
In the event of fire, elevators, as a matter of precaution, are generally rendered inoperative, and personnel are forced to rely on fire-escapes, stairways, and emergency exits to leave the building. Smoke and fumes are factors that must be reckoned with and may pose a major problem. Personnel may be forced, in extreme cases, to keep close to the floor where the air is usually clearer and may have to literally crawl on their hands and knees to reach a usable exit. Obviously, it is important that any means provided to assist in the rescue operation leave the arms of the presonnel involved free and unencumbered for other duties during their hasty departure from the building.
In order to overcome, as far as possible, the above described difficulties encountered in such rescue operations, we have devised a simple wrap-around garment in the form of a vest which may be rapidly donned by hospital personnel to evacuate a plurality of new-born babies in an expedient and safe manner, the garment being described in detail in the accompanying specification and drawings.